WhatsApp Group Application: Increasing or Decreasing The Closeness

Abstract

The contestation of presidential elections tends to color the content of public talks. This includes students from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, at Halu Oleo University, which is channeled through WhatsApp Group (WAG). Differences in the choice between users often lead to conflict. Therefore, this article aims to describe the merger and number of WAGs that are followed, conflicts that occur in the WAG, acts of leave groups conducted by WAG members, as well as comments given after the leave group event by one of the members related to the conflict. The method used in this study is using the quantitative descriptive method, where data is collected through questionnaires to 201 respondents as samples, observations, and interviews to selected samples. The results showed that most students attended a number of WAGs. In some WAGs that followed, there were conflicts relating to presidential elections which led to the leave group action conducted by WAG members. The debate and conflict that occurred on the WhatsApp group, showed that as a communication media, WhatsApp Group had a role in increasing, while reducing the level of closeness among group members. Even though the initial goal of group formation was based on the desire to establish closer communication between members who were friends and partners. The awareness of members on the initial purpose of forming WAG is expected to minimize possible conflicts in the WAG, so that the conditions of relations between members can be harmonious